The Greenpeace flagship, the Rainbow Warrior, begins the first leg of the 'Choose Positive Energy Tour' in a global journey to support the development renewable energy around the world.
Belgium's Deputy Prime Minister and Energy Minister today called
for an end to subsidies for nuclear power and a boost for
development of renewable energy. Speaking onboard the Greenpeace
flagship the Rainbow Warrior, the Ministers strongly backed the
calls from environmental groups to end subsidies for dirty nuclear
power and to promote renewable energy.
During a visit to the Rainbow Warrior, Belgium's Deputy Prime
Minister, van de Lanotte, backed Greenpeace's campaign against
nuclear subsidies recognising that they threaten the development of
renewable energy.
"Today nuclear power is blocking access to the electricity
grid?..wind energy should get free access to the grid and this will
free the way for the full development of renewable energy. An
important element is the absence of an electricity grid in the
North Sea, which obliges each individual wind project to develop
their own grid. The national grid organisation, Elia, should manage
this as it does for the land based grid," van de Lanotte said.
Belgium's Energy Minister, Deleuze, referred to the existing
national regulations, which already give priority access to the
grid for renewable energy projects. He said this priority access
still needs to be enforced and extended to cover the whole European
electricity market specifically for cross border transmission
lines, which at present have only a limited capacity.
An enormous strain is being placed on the Belgium grid by
France?s nuclear exports through it, Deleuze said. "My first task
as Energy Minister is the security of supply, and if the French
exports to Germany and the Netherlands is putting too much stress
on the Belgian grid, I will take the
responsibility to block the flow at the French Belgium border,"
he warned. "I have written to my colleagues in the Netherlands,
Germany, France and Switzerland to explain this policy and to call
for the development of a European policy to resolve the problem,"
he said.
Greenpeace welcomed the support of the government ministers and
repeated its call for a full investigation into the subsidies to
nuclear power and a plan for their elimination.
Jan van de Putte from Greenpeace Belgium said: "The
establishment of a dedicated North Sea grid is a pre-condition for
the large scale development of offshore wind power. With the right
policy in place wind energy could supply one third of our
electricity needs within a generation. This Government has the
responsibility to make that energy revolution happen and to phase
out nuclear power."
The visit followed an action earlier this week in which
Greenpeace activists climbed the cooling tower of the Belgium's
Doel nuclear plant calling for an end to discrimination against
renewable energy sources and nuclear subsidies.